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Nine Potomac National Merit Semifinalists Named

Nine Potomac National Merit Semifinalists Named

Nine seniors have been selected as semifinalists for the 2026 National Merit® Scholarship Program. They are Elizabeth Ahn, Hugh Antonik, Tara Bansal, Aaliya Haque, Katie Lee, Aliyah Majeed-Hall, Jason Phillips, Thomas Shanmugam, and Addie Wolff. 

These students were all among the top scorers in Virginia on the 2024 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which is used for initial screening. The highest-scoring students in each state are selected as semifinalists, with each state’s representation proportional to its percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

More than 1.3 million juniors in about 20,000 high schools took the PSAT. The semifinalists represent less than 1% of the nation’s high school seniors. Semifinalists can continue in the competition for approximately 6,390 National Merit Scholarships, worth nearly $25 million in total, that will be awarded next spring.  

Pictured (l to r) Jason Phillips, Hugh Antonik, Thomas Shanmugam, Tara Bansal, Elizabeth Ahn, Katie Lee,  Addie Wolff, Aaliya Haque, and Aliyah Majeed-Hall

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